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“That’s why I’ve stabbed him. Carried on stabbing him. It weren’t hard. Bending on the floor and still stabbing him.

“I whacked the kid right on the nose. And after I’ve just went bump, bump, bump all the way up. I can only remember stabbing him seven times though. So I don’t know why, where they’re getting nine stab wounds.”

Woods, of Douglas Place in Liverpool, but who at the time was said to have been staying locally on Deeside, and Leslie Peter Baines, 48, of King’s Road in Connah’s Quay are jointly accused of murdering Mr Cassidy, which they deny.

Mr Cassidy, of Huyton in Liverpool, was stabbed to death in the stair well of a block of flats at Bethel Place in Connah’s Quay High Street on May 29 last year.

Mr Lewis told the jury that while in custody Woods had attempted to pervert the course of justice – which he said was proof of his cunning and devious nature.

In September 2017, he gave police a SIM card and a statement in which he said that co-defendant Baines had committed the murder, he said he had several texts from him and he had him saved in his contacts as Les B.

The “Les B” phone appeared to have been an illegal prison phone being used by someone other than Baines at Altcourse – before Baines was remanded in custody

Woods,Mr Lewis , had today admitted doing an act intending to pervert the course of justice by providing police with fabricated phone evidence.

The jury heard that on the night of the stabbing Woods attended both the Royal Liverpool Hospital and Aintree Hospital seeking medical attention for two wounds to his hand.

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Mr Lewis said on May 30, a red-handled knife was recovered from the roof of the Kingdom Hall Community Centre, which was near the flats.

The following day a second knife, which appeared to be from the same set, was found on a grass verge, near the estuary, and at a place known locally as the Rock.

The knife from the roof had a DNA bloodstain on the blade from a mix of blood from Woods and Mr Cassidy.

DNA from the second knife had low-level partial DNA profiles said to be one billion times more likely to have come from Woods than an unrelated individual.

Baines denied being at the flats and said he had seen Woods at a house where he was getting drugs, and Wood was bleeding from his hand at that stage.

The prosecutor said Woods had since produced a defence statement in which he had put forward a different account and blamed Baines for the murder.

He alleged Baines had been helping him sell drugs, that he had a reputation as a hard man and was known to carry a knife.

Wood said he was the only dealer in Connah’s Quay as far as he knew and when Mr Cassidy and an associate Shaun Ventre appeared on the scene in Connah’s Quay, he befriended them, intending to rob them.

As he got friendly with them, he lost interest in robbing them, but alleged that Baines insisted that they should be robbed.

That day, both went to the flats to sell drugs but Woods claimed he had been set up in a trap to be robbed and that Mr Cassidy and Mr Ventre were there.

Woods said he told Mr Cassidy that he had a “punter” waiting for him and that Mr Cassidy went downstairs.

Woods claimed he came under attack himself, fled downstairs, came across the deceased talking to Baines who he alleged had a knife in his right hand.

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Woods claimed he then grabbed the knife from Baines and used it to stab Mr Cassidy in the leg, telling him that he was a “fu**ing rat” for setting him up - but said he had no intention to cause him any serious injury.

Woods said he left leaving Baines inside.

Woods claimed that Baines had later told him that he had chased the deceased upstairs and had stabbed him twice in the chest before robbing him.

Woods claimed his recorded comments in prison were all “nonsense”, and he was just “showing off.”

Baines, in his defence statement, said he had been to buy drugs, got wet which was why he changed his clothes and when he later saw Woods he was bleeding heavily from a cut to his hand, and was boasting of how he had “done him”, referring to Mr Cassidy.

Baines denied being at the Bethel Road flats that night.

The prosecutor said: “They are apparently blaming each other in an effort to save their own skin.”